Re: Some advise please

If you've got a blank check...
DB: (2) Oracle 8.1.5 or 8.1.6 (pray no new bugs have been introduced with the improvements)
Box for DB: (2) Sun E3500-6500 w/4 CPU and 4 - 8 GB of RAM on Solaris 2.7 Storage for DB: A5000 storage array (dual FCAL channels to server, expandable to 1TB, start with 50 - 100GB of disk)
High Availability for DB: Sun Cluster software or Veritas solution or Oracle's built-in auto standby

App Server: Bea WebLogic or Silverstream 3 Box for App server: (2) Sun E250 - 450 on Solaris 2.7 with 1 - 2 GB RAM

Web Server: Netscape Enterprise or Apache Box for Web server: depends on how many concurrent users you anticipate, could be a web server farm with "hydra"-like routing solutions or a simple DNS round-robin solution if you anticipate a lot. Or it could be on the same box as the app server if you don't anticipate as many (although that introduces a nasty fail point for the whole system if you decide to take down/upgrade your app server). Ideally the web server is always up, even it is only to serve up a static HTML page that says your system is currently down. If you go with an integrated Oracle solution (i.e. Oracle Application Server), the web server MUST run on the same box as the app server, which I find annoying and limiting (this is what we're currently using).

Application architecture:
Modular data-layer PL/SQL packages generated by PL-Generator from RevealNet compiled on the DB. Business layer (business rules logic) built in EJB components. Presentation layer stuff built in Java servlets/JSP's.

Now this is all assuming you have a blank check and can hire a Sun administrator, Oracle DBA, and a Java programmer. This is also assuming that you will eventually want to do a whole lot more with your site than what you described in your posting. If what you described is all you'll ever want to do, then take the Oracle DB section I gave you above, and tack on a Netscape or Apache web server with a few scripts that a consultant writes for you in N/ISAP cgi or Perl which connects to the DB and does the inserts and queries.

Shortcuts for the larger solution:
With a litte training you could take the Silverstream package and produce all the business logic and web presentation layer components.

Another very good option for your current needs is the OAS from Oracle and Web DB 2.1. Web DB 3.0 will be out sometime this year which is light years ahead of 2.1, but probably not in time for your needs. With a week of self-tutoring, you could have a nice site working in WebDB (assuming your install of all this stuff is complete and working).

We are currently using the Versata package which allows us to define business rules declaratively, data objects in Access (soon to be stored in XML). We then upload data components to Oracle and business components (generated Java) to their own app server (also written in Java). We then tell the development tool whether we want the application in HTML or a Java applet. That's it. It hasn't been without its bugs and I hate Access as a repository for our enterprise business logic, but it's saved us all kinds of time. It expects you to come up with your own web server, usually Netscape or IIS. It's about $25,000 per CPU + $3000 per developer. Future changes to anything in the application is a 5 minute job instead of a major project. Oracle's new JDeveloper 3.0 with their business components for Java takes this same approach. But we haven't used it yet (sitting on my desk gathering dust) and we have no idea how buggy it is, so buyer beware. But JDeveloper itself is basically JBuilder from Inprise which is solid enough.

Good luck,
- bill c.

Paul Gallimore wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Can somebody advise me on a project that we plan to undertake.
>
> My company intends to build a web site with a huge database at the back end.
> That is, it is our intention to create a database that is capable of storing
> records for a huge number of site visitors; say, 30,000,000 people - but who
> really knows.
>
> For each user/visitor we anticipate requiring no more than 10 information
> fields. The database then needs to be interactive with the web site's html
> pages. Meaning that people must be able to insert information from their
> browsers whilst others must then be able to retrieve the same info from
> dynamically created html pages.
>
> As an example of the kind of thing I have in mind: Users from all over the
> world must be able to store information about themselves, but a surfer from
> Atlanta must be able to then come to our site and be able to discover from
> the database the average shoe-size of Londoners and the names of all those
> who take a size 11 shoe and live in Wembley. When he makes the enquiry from
> our web site concerning the shoe sizes he then gets a few pages created for
> him listing the individuals names and addresses. He also gets banner ads
> dynamically built into the pages according to his own user profile. Get it?
>
> I have been advised that Oracle is probably the best db software to use
> because of the size of db required and because Oracle is robust enough for
> the job. My questions then, are these:
>
> 1. Which Oracle products would you recommend? Would it be Oracle 8i and Web
> DB?
>
> 2. Which OS platform is preferable? Is NT stable enough, will it cope? Or,
> must it me Unix or Linux?
>
> 3. For various reasons it may be that we ask a non-programmer to accomplish
> this task. That is, RTFM and get on with it. Is this feasible, or is it an
> impossible task for a mere mortal? I need to know this, since it may well be
> me who has to read the manuals and do the job.
>
> Any advice would be very much appreciated. We have a large project on our
> hands and we want to be certain to start at the right place. It would be
> very helpful if replies could be e-mailed to me as well as sent to the
> group. Thanks.
>
> Paul
Received on Thu Jan 27 2000 - 17:34:22 CET